1951 U-37 Slo-mo-shun V

Reprinted from Skid Fin Magazine, 2003, Volume 1 Number
2

The Slo-mo-shun V, owned by Stan Sayers and driven by Lou Fagel,
won the first unlimited hydroplane race held in Seattle, the 1951
Gold Cup. She was designed and built by the incomparable team of
Ted Jones and Anchor Jensen, who had also collaborated with Sayers
on the 1950 Gold Cup winner Slo-mo-shun IV. The V – like the IV –
was a three-point prop-rider. The important difference between the
Slo-mo’s and the previous prop-riders like the My Sin resulted from
the elimination of the rear-planing surface. The third riding
surface was actually the propeller, which cut the drag tremendously
and permitted much greater speeds. The Slo-mo-shun V was 28 feet
long, and at 12 feet wide, she was 6 inches wider then her older
sister. The V was designed to have better acceleration than the IV.
Both the Slo-mo-shun boats were powered with 1710 cubic inch V-12
engines.

The V was launched just a few days before the Gold Cup and was
the first boat to qualify, with an average speed of 91.37 mph. She
was clearly much faster than that: she ran a competition lap of
108.663 on her way to winning the first and second heats. The
Slo-mo was leading the third heat when it was canceled after the
Quicksilver crashed. The V was declared the winner based on her
performance in heats one and two.

The next weekend Ted Jones drove the V to victory in the first
Seafair race. The Slo-mos only went to one race in 1952. The IV won
the race, but the V failed to finish. In 1953 the V went back east
and won the Presidents Cup. The following year the V used a
Rolls-Royce Merlin engine to capture the 1954 Gold Cup. This was
the last victory for the mighty Slo-mo-shun team. The next year saw
the V blow over backwards, doing a perfect 360-degree loop while
attempting to quality for the 1955 race.

Sayers sold the damaged V to a group of Seattle businessmen who
raced her from 1956 to 1962 as the Miss Seattle. She appeared in
the mid- 1960s at several races under the names Berryessa Belle and
Miss Tri Cities.

In 1991 Ken Muscatel, Bruce McCaw and Howard Leendersten teamed
up to buy the boat and restore her. The restoration work, completed
at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum, was let by museum volunteer
Roger Newton. When the restoration was completed, Ted Jones
commented, "She looks better than she did when she was new."